How to Spring Clean Your Finances

By Nicholas Pell

Spring is the perfect time to get your personal financial house back into order. The holidays are behind you, your taxes are filed and it’s the time of year when you’re going to be cleaning out the garage and the attic anyway. Once a year, there are a couple money-related areas you should take a look at for the sake of making sure everything is running like a well-oiled machine. Here’s a short list of how you can keep your financial house in order.
Look at Your Insurance Rates and Beyond
Insurance rates can vary from one company to another. If it’s been a year or more since you tried getting your rates lowered, now is the time to start looking at getting a lower rate on all your insurance — across the board. “Insurance is one place where you can usually find better deals when you look,” says Rachel Cruze, a New York Times best-selling author and Ramsey financial expert. She advocates looking at your insurance rates once a year or once a quarter.
Ellie Kay, a personal finance expert and author of Living Rich for Less, thinks this basic practice — reevaluating regular expenses — can even go beyond insurance. She recommends that you also look at your cell phone plan and other fixed expenses to lower the cost. “Do comparison shopping and see what they can do for you. Chances are better than not that you’re going to save money.”
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